Getu Beyene Duguma, Ph.D. is an Assistant Member and Principal Investigator at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, where he leads translational research programs focused on improving productivity, resilience, and nutritional quality of under-researched staple crops. His work integrates transgenic approaches, genome editing, functional genomics, and molecular trait characterization with field-based validation to deliver farmer-preferred traits in crops such as cassava, tef, cowpea, and other orphan cereals and legumes.

Dr. Duguma has been with the Danforth Center since 2012, and his research has contributed to the development of biofortified and virus resistance cassava, as well as pioneering genome-editing efforts in tef for lodging resistance and yield stability. He earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Plant Physiology from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Plant Sciences from Alemaya University, Ethiopia. Prior to joining the Danforth Center, Dr. Duguma conducted postdoctoral research at Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Pioneer Hi-Bred (DuPont), and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa.